How to fix US Congress/Elections...

• TA wrote on 2011-09-23 02:35
  I thought about it, and here are my own ideas... I figure I may as well share the whole thing with you guys, and you can share your thoughts and opinions on what I propose...
  
  First: The largest problem with Congress at this moment is that everyone wants a non-partisan Congress where everyone will cross the lines and make decisions that need to be made based on America's best interests and not political agendas.
  
  Well, this can't happen. When we are so strongly based on a 2 party system, split itself based upon their core ideologies, of course there is going to be a strong split down the middle of Congress.
  
  So if we want a bi-partisan Congress, what we need to do is eliminate the party system all together. This country should be run by the people - not by bureaucratic political parties with agendas. An individual person is good. It is people that are bad. Mob mentality wins over when we set people into these tight little groups, and the expected happens.
  
  Next: We need to eliminate political contributions, in their entirety. What is one of the largest problems an average person thinks of when they think of politicians? Accepting political bribes, or being paid for by massive corporates who offer substantial political funding so that their agendas are heard and acted on. It is not the corporation's ideals we must protect. It is the people's.
  
  So how do we do this and be fair? Obviously some individuals running for office will be more wealthy than others and thereby will have a much easier time getting exposure and, retroactively, votes. Simple. We eliminate the practice of private funding entirely. All election campaigns will be paid for in their entirety by the government itself. Every single person running for office will be treated exactly the same. Everyone will get the exact same exposure, the exact same television spots.
  
  Of course, individuals running would all start out with a relatively small amount of exposure, and as the race progresses, popularity would eventually determine who the candidates will be. To accomplish this, we could run elections once a month leading up to the election, in which the citizens of our country would vote for their favorite candidate based upon that month's (or whatever they'd like, really) government endorsed election system media exposure. A set amount with the highest votes would then progress and get more coverage that the then eliminated candidates (or, ex-candidates rather) would have gotten. It would then progress until there are a relatively small amount of individuals running for office by the time we get to the actual elections.
  
  There would be no parties. Our country would be ran by individuals of the people, chosen by the people, and who would run the country for the people. No political agendas, no political contributions, no party system. A true bi-partisan Congress. Perhaps then we'll start getting changes made, and be a shining example once again to the rest of the world.
  
  Next, we also need a clear protest voting system, where a citizen can choose "None of the above" when they don't believe any of the candidates deserve to be elected to office, because so many times I know many feel that there are no good candidates. This would force us to offer new candidates that deserve to be in office rather than having to choose the lesser of two evils and still losing in the end. No, not our candidate. America, because it is America and its people that loses when bad candidates get elected to office to represent all of us.
• EndlessDreams wrote on 2011-09-23 09:40
  I think it was George Washington who warned the US about the dangers of political parties during his farewell address.
  
  The problem is that many candidates relies on advertisement to gain popularity. I would have never heard of Barack Obama until he appeared in TV/commercials/internet advertisements. How would the government choose which candidate to advertise/support? There are TONS of political parties out there, but the dominance/tyranny of the Republican/Democratic parties overshadows them all.
  
  People with similar ideologies/goals will group together, and try to help each other. It is just part of human nature. There are some complicated laws dealing with campaign contributions as well.
  
  The founding fathers who crafted the US constitutions were very afraid of the ignorant masses. That is why they created the electoral college system.
  
  The current two party system is not much different from a one party system except that two party system takes a lot longer to get things done. Both systems dominates all other parties.
  
  It is pretty sad that the current two-party system causes so much slowdowns in decision-making. Just look at China, when they want something, they quickly decide, and do it. Sure there is discussion among themselves there, but it isn't as long, and as inefficient as the US. Of course, the China government do have a history of denying many rights that people take for granted here, but they are slowly changing their ways over there as well.